The Texas Longhorns ended a season of injuries, player suspensions and head-scratching losses with their best game of the year.
James Brown threw for a school-record five touchdowns, including two to Eric Jackson, as Texas used big plays to defeat Baylor 63-35 on Thursday."This is the kind of win that shows we deserve to go to a bowl game," linebacker Norman Watkins said. "It shows how strong we are, to go through all of the controversies this season and finish the year with our best game. I couldn't ask for anything else."
Watkins, who was a high school senior the last time Texas (7-4, 4-3 Southwest Conference) went to a bowl, will end his college career in the Sun Bowl in El Paso Dec. 30.
Baylor (7-4, 4-3), which had Cotton Bowl hopes heading into the game, is likely going to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Dec. 31. The Longhorns' victory also means that Texas Tech will be the SWC representative in the Cotton Bowl.
Brown, a redshirt freshman, was 18-of-25 for 289 yards without an interception and also ran seven times for 51 yards. He led a frenzied offense that rolled up 582 yards and scored five touchdowns on plays of 28 yards or more.
"We tried everything we could to stop them," Baylor coach Chuck Reedy said. "Brown is a great quarterback. It seemed like we had his primary receiver covered a bunch of the time, but he kept finding people open."
Texas' offensive output was the most under third-year coach John Mackovic, who resumed calling plays after loses to Rice, Texas Tech and Texas A&M that had Longhorn fans calling for his job.
But Mackovic, who in November acknowledged suffering month-long delusional side effects from an October sideline collision, may have quieted the furor now that his team is headed to a bowl game. School administrators have said his job is not in jeopardy.
"We now have an experienced, good young team that has faced a lot of adversity and has had to fight all year long," Mackovic said. "This team is stronger today than it was a month ago."
Brown threw touchdown passes of 37 and 16 yards to Jackson, 45 yards to Lovell Pinkney, 28 yards to Pat Fitzgerald and 1 yard to Chad Lucas. Brown broke the school record of four touchdown passes in a game he shared with four others.
"Our attitude was that we wanted to go to a bowl game and win this one for our seniors," Brown said.
Baylor, which led 14-7 and 21-14 in the first half, was led by Jerod Douglas, who carried 20 times for a school-record 210 yards, including touchdown runs of 6 and 51 yards. Douglas broke Baylor's single-game rushing mark of 207 yards set by Walter Abercrombie against Texas A&M in 1978.
The Bears had 474 yards of offense, but three turnovers led to Texas touchdowns.
"I thought it would take 40 points to win the game, and that wouldn't have even come close," Reedy said.
After a seesaw first half, the Longhorns took the lead for good late in the second quarter following an interception by linebacker Kyle Richardson that put the ball on the Baylor 45.
On the next play, Brown faked an out pattern to Pinkney, freezing a Baylor defender and allowing Pinkney to turn upfield for an easy TD reception. That gave the Longhorns a 28-21 halftime lead.